Witchcraft and Co-Wife Proximity in Southwestern Kenya

Levine, Robert A.

doi:10.2307/3772927

Cited by 30 publications

(7 citation statements)

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“…Thus, among the close living Mehinacu, as with the other cultures, there is a clearcut series of mechanisms for regulating contact between in-laws, which may serve to compensate for their newly appearing physical and psychological proximity. LeVine (1962) described another type of avoidance phenomenon-between co-wives in three polygamous African societies, the,Gusii, the Kipsigis, and the Luo. These cultures had different living arrangements among the co-wives, from close proximity to considerable separation.…”

Section: Relationships Between In-lawsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Privacy Regulation: Culturally Universal or Culturally Specific?

Altman

1977

Journal of Social Issues

401

194

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This article examines privacy as a generic process that occurs in all cultures but that also differs among cultures in terms of the behavioral mechanisms used to regulate desired levels of privacy. Ethnographic data are examined from a variety of cultures, particularly from societies with apparently maximum and minimum privacy, and from analyses of various social relationships, such as parents and children, in-laws, husbands and wives. It is concluded that privacy is a universal process that involves culturally unique regulatory mechanisms.This article addresses the question posed in the title, namely, is privacy regulation a culturally universal process or is it a culturally specific phenomenon? Like the rabbi of Jewish folklore faced with petitioners holding irreconcilable opinions, my answer is "yes, both positions are correct!" This seemingly paradoxical response is based on an analysis of privacy as (a) a culturally universal process involving dynamic, dialectic, and optimization features, and @) a culturally specific process in terms of mechanisms used to regulate social interaction. Thus, I view privacy to be culturally pervasive at one level of analysis and culturally unique at another level of analysis.The first section of the article summarizes a theoretical model and rationale for conceiving privacy as a cultural universal. Dilemmas, issues, and a strategy for dealing with the question of cultural universals are then discussed, followed by a review of ethnographic data related to privacy. ~ I wish to acknowledge my appreciation for comments on earlier versions of this article

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Section: Relationships Between In-lawsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Privacy Regulation: Culturally Universal or Culturally Specific?

Altman

1977

Journal of Social Issues

401

194

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“…A nice example is the Kenyan Gusii's borrowing of Luo sorcery customs to cope with the deterioration in co-wife relationships, contingent on rapid population growth. 78 In short, for the purposes of testing adaptive hypotheses, many comparative anthropologists do not distinguish innovation from borrowing, in rather the same way that comparative biologists do not differentiate the de novo appearance of a trait from the emergence of functionally similar traits in unrelated lineages.…”

Section: What Is the Appropriate Methods Of Historical Control In Anthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using phylogenetically based comparative methods in anthropology: More questions than answers

Mulder¹

2001

Evolutionary Anthropology

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“…Children, future competitors for their father's resources, were often seen to be the target of witchcraft with child ailments and misfortunes seen to be caused by a co-mother's ill-feeling. Attributing such misfortunes to tensions in the home manifest through witchcraft provides a means of explaining events as well as apportioning blame in tense co-wife relationships (LeVine, 1962;Meekers and Franklins, 1995;Bove and Valeggia, 2009). …”

Section: Conflict or Cooperation?mentioning

confidence: 98%

The Changing Relationships of Co-wives Over Time in Rural Southern Uganda

Seeley

2012

The Journal of Development Studies

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Co-wives are often portrayed both as being rivals for their husband's affections and resources as well as collaborators in managing the family. I explore a further dimension: historical time. The life trajectories of individual women in rural Uganda show how co-wife relationships are established, change, endure or end. In addition to ageing, which plays a part in women's changing conjugal arrangements, political upheavals and HIV and AIDS have also had a profound impact on their lives, affecting not only their relationship and attitude towards their husbands but also towards their children, as well as each other.

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Witchcraft and Co-Wife Proximity in Southwestern Kenya

Cited by 30 publications

References 0 publications

Privacy Regulation: Culturally Universal or Culturally Specific?

Privacy Regulation: Culturally Universal or Culturally Specific?

Using phylogenetically based comparative methods in anthropology: More questions than answers

The Changing Relationships of Co-wives Over Time in Rural Southern Uganda

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